1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a heat producing decoy to protect ships, for example, from enemy infra-red homing missiles. The decoy utilizes inexpensive hydrocarbon or pyrophoric fuel sprayed into the atmosphere above the water. The fuel is ignited by a chemical or energetic ignitor for example, or may be spontaneously ignited on contact with the atmosphere. Examples of energetic ignitors are magnesium/Teflon.RTM. and boron/potassium perchlorate. Inexpensive hydrocarbon fuels might be JP-4, JP-5 or diesel oil. Pyrophoric fuels might be trimethel aluminum (TMA) triethyl aluminum or in general, aluminum alkyls. The spray of burning material generates large amounts of infra-red and/or visible radiation which attracts an incoming missile.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Previous ship decoys have utilized small floating sources which were point sources and were readily hidden by waves and swells. Furthermore, most of these devices utilized expensive fluorocarbon fuels. Examples of expensive fluoro carbons are Teflon.RTM. (polytetrafluoro ethylene) and Viton-A.RTM. (copolymer of vinylidene flouride and hexafluoropropene). As an alternative, in some instances, flame throwers were used which were fixed on the ship and burning fuel was sprayed various distances from the ship. These latter devices were extremely range limited and could only deploy the flame in restricted quadrants about the ship. Furthermore, these fixed devices could not decoy missiles to any appreciable distance from the ship.